With the greatest of ease
Published 5:46 pm Friday, March 21, 2008
Imagine programming acrobatics and dance into kids who show promise for four thousand years. What does that look like? What does it result in?
Last week, Edmonds Center for the Arts headlined an example: “Golden Dragon Acrobats,” a touring troupe from Hebei, China, with roots dating back to the Xia Dynasty, two thousand years before Christ. These folks did things you can’t believe.
Place a good-sized kitchen chair on a table as if you were going to sit on it. Situate another on it upside down, seat-to-seat, legs up. Likewise, stack eight other kitchen chairs on them so that you have a virtual “Tower of Chairs,” as the act titled itself.
Now, stand a ninth chair atop that tower, grab hold of it by its back, tilt it backward on two legs and do a handstand with one hand.
The stocking feet of the dude who did it, shadowed on the ECA ceiling.
Imagine the danger, the control involved, the concentration, the endless hours of practice.
Same, minus the danger, for the umbrella, foot and ball juggling while twisting the body into knots the human species is incapable of.
Or so I would have thought if a juggler hadn’t dropped a jar and a tumbler through hoops hadn’t tipped one over. They showed me they make mistakes, too.
In that way, the mistakes – pitifully few as they were – did fit into a much larger picture. “Dragon” is about what it means to be human.
Stunts aside, silk costumed performers in designs and shades of color that conjure up the Far East; dragons, snakes, pastels, calligraphy and the like.
Choreography by Angela Chang flowed with grace and continuity, not unlike the river banks of the Yangtze where poets in ancient times are said to have sat meditating while composing.
Smiles, politeness, cooperation and attention to detail, trademarked values the Chinese esteem.
Word is “One World One Dream” will be China’s slogan when they host this year’s summer Olympics in Beijing. “Golden Dragon Acrobatics” impresario, Danny Chang, promotes to that theme, and the troupe performs to it.
Forget a dropped jar and a tipped-over hoop. Mistakes are human. When push comes to shove, we’ve got more than faults in common.
Reactions? Comments? E-mail Dale Burrows at entopinion@heraldnet.com or grayghost7@comcast.net.
